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If there’s one thing COVID-19 / coronavirus (‘C-19’ for the cool kids) has shown the business world, it’s that remote working is achievable for many different types of roles and duties that might normally have been pushed aside in a request to work from home. Necessity is the mother of all invention as they say. If you have found yourself in this situation or know of friends and business colleagues who are, you might already have started thinking about what …

The Australian employment environment was rocked last year following the Federal Court of Australia decision in Workpac v Skene [2018] FCAFC 131. In short, this decision found that employers who incorrectly classify employees as casual instead of full-time or part-time could be responsible for back paying various entitlements under the National Employment Standards (NES). An immediate cry went up that this was effectively allowing ‘double-dipping’ for casuals to receive their casual loading (to cover not receiving the benefits of a permanent employee) …

Records – in particular, records relating to employment. *yawn* But….what if we told you this is often the one area that employers wish they’d paid attention to before they were hit with penalties by an industrial regulator? In our travels, we regularly see missed record keeping requirements that would fail an inspection by an industrial regulator. For example, not having the correct pay level recorded, no date of commencement of employment…or there being no record of the termination of employment! …

A knowledgeable and thoughtful word from CBSW Tax and Business Advisors For over 20 years employers have had a legal requirement to pay superannuation for their employees with respect to their ‘Ordinary Time Earnings’. The current rate for superannuation is 9.5%, which has steadily increased over this time and is scheduled to continue its increase over the coming years. Sometimes, for a range of reasons, employers have underpaid or not paid the correct superannuation contributions. The Australian Taxation Office (“ATO”) …

Did you know… there are two systems of workplace laws in Australia and using the right one could save you money and headaches? Generally speaking, if a business is set up as a “Proprietary Limited company” – that is, as a Pty Ltd entity which hasn’t offered shares to the general public – then staff fall under the national employment system. This is managed by the Fair Work Ombudsman (www.fwo.gov.au). But if a business is set up as a sole …

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) regularly publishes updates to aspects of National System workplace laws. In case you missed it, in December 2017, the FWC published its final decision relating to the treatment of overtime rates and other entitlements in some modern awards. These changes centred on part time and casual employees and took effect from the first full pay cycle commencing on or after 1st January this year. Broadly speaking, the changes introduced overtime rates for casual employees in …

Do you know all the workplace laws governing how you pay your employees (overtime, penalties, minimum wages etc) and your pay slip and record-keeping requirements? The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) recently released their findings from a campaign targeting these issues amongst Barossa region employers and found that half the employers investigated were breaching these requirements, some without even realising it. Apart from issuing on-the-spot fines, the FWO also directed the back payment of wages to workers who were affected by …